QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE

RESEARCH
 RESEARCH AND RESEARCH METHODS

• RESEARCH METHODS ARE SPLIT BROADLY INTO

QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE METHODS

• WHICH YOU CHOOSE WILL DEPEND ON:

• YOUR RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• YOUR UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY OF RESEARCH
• YOUR PREFERENCES AND SKILLS
 A NOTE ABOUT DATA

• QUANTITATIVE DATA IS ABOUT QUANTITIES, AND THEREFORE

NUMBERS
• QUALITATIVE DATA IS ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE THING
INVESTIGATED AND TENDS TO BE WORDS RATHER THAN NUMBERS
• DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY DATA SOURCES:
• PRIMARY DATA REFERS TO THE FIRST-HAND DATA GATHERED BY THE
RESEARCHER HIMSELF (SURVEYS, OBSERVATIONS, EXPERIMENTS,
QUESTIONNAIRE, PERSONAL INTERVIEW, ETC.)
• SECONDARY DATA MEANS DATA COLLECTED BY SOMEONE ELSE EARLIER
(GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS, WEBSITES, BOOKS, JOURNAL ARTICLES,
INTERNAL RECORDS ETC.)
 QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES
• ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN PHENOMENA BY ANALYZING
NUMERICAL DATA
• TELLS YOU IF THERE IS A “DIFFERENCE” BUT NOT
NECESSARILY WHY
• DATA COLLECTED ARE ALWAYS NUMERICAL AND
ANALYZED USING STATISTICAL METHODS
• VARIABLES ARE CONTROLLED AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
SO WE CAN ELIMINATE INTERFERENCE AND MEASURE
THE EFFECT OF ANY CHANGE
• RANDOMIZATION IS USED TO REDUCE SUBJECTIVE BIAS
 QUANTITATIVE DATA

• DATA SOURCES INCLUDE

• SURVEYS WHERE THERE ARE A LARGE NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
• OBSERVATIONS (COUNTS OF NUMBERS AND/OR CODING
DATA INTO NUMBERS)
• SECONDARY DATA (GOVERNMENT DATA, NAT SCORES, ETC)
• ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES INCLUDE HYPOTHESIS
TESTING, CORRELATIONS, AND CLUSTER ANALYSIS
 ANALYZING QUANTITATIVE DATA

• ALWAYS GROUP AND/OR VISUALIZE THE DATA

INITIALLY TO CLEAN THE DATE FROM OUTLIERS
• WHAT AVERAGE ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
• MEAN, MEDIAN, OR MODE?
• SPREAD OF DATA:
• SKEWNESS/DISTRIBUTION
• RANGE, VARIANCE AND STANDARD DEVIATION
EXAMPLE CORRELATIONS

From ‘Spurious
correlations’ website
http://www.tylervigen.com/
spurious-correlations
 WHAT QUANTITATIVE RESEARCHERS
WORRY ABOUT

• IS MY SAMPLE SIZE BIG ENOUGH?

• HAVE I USED THE CORRECT STATISTICAL TEST?
• HAVE I REDUCED THE LIKELIHOOD OF MAKING TYPE I
AND/OR TYPE II ERRORS?
• ARE MY RESULTS GENERALIZABLE?
• ARE MY RESULTS/METHODS/RESULTS REPRODUCIBLE?
• AM I MEASURING THINGS THE RIGHT WAY?
 WHAT’S WRONG WITH QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH?
• SOME THINGS CAN’T BE MEASURED – OR MEASURED
ACCURATELY
• DOESN’T TELL YOU WHY
• CAN BE IMPERSONAL – NO ENGAGEMENT WITH HUMAN
BEHAVIOURS OR INDIVIDUALS
• DATA CAN BE STATIC – SNAPSHOTS OF A POINT IN TIME
• CAN TELL A VERSION OF THE TRUTH (OR A LIE?) –
PERSUASIVE POWER OF NUMBERS
 QUALITATIVE APPROACHES

• ANY RESEARCH THAT DOESN’T INVOLVE NUMERICAL DATA

• INSTEAD USES WORDS, PICTURES, PHOTOS, VIDEOS, AUDIO
RECORDINGS. FIELD NOTES, GENERALITIES, PEOPLE’S OWN
WORDS.
• TENDS TO START WITH A BROAD QUESTION RATHER THAN A
SPECIFIC HYPOTHESIS
• DEVELOP A THEORY RATHER THAN START WITH ONE
 INDUCTIVE RATHER THAN DEDUCTIVE
 GATHERING QUALITATIVE DATA

• TENDS TO YIELD RICH DATA TO EXPLORE HOW AND WHY

THINGS HAPPENED
• DON’T NEED LARGE SAMPLE SIZES (IN COMPARISON TO
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH)
• SOME ISSUES MAY ARISE, SUCH AS
• RESPONDENTS PROVIDING INACCURATE OR FALSE INFORMATION –
OR SAYING WHAT THEY THINK THE RESEARCHER WANTS TO HEAR
• ETHICAL ISSUES MAY BE MORE PROBLEMATIC AS THE RESEARCHER
IS USUALLY CLOSER TO PARTICIPANTS
• RESEARCHER OBJECTIVITY MAY BE MORE DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE
 SOURCES OF QUALITATIVE DATA

• INTERVIEWS (STRUCTURED, SEMI-STRUCTURED, OR

UNSTRUCTURED)
• FOCUS GROUPS
• QUESTIONNAIRES OR SURVEYS
• SECONDARY DATA, INCLUDING DIARIES, SELF-REPORTING,
WRITTEN ACCOUNTS OF PAST EVENTS/ARCHIVE DATA, AND
COMPANY REPORTS;
• DIRECT OBSERVATIONS – MAY ALSO BE RECORDED
(VIDEO/AUDIO)
• ETHNOGRAPHY
 ANALYSING QUALITATIVE DATA

• CONTENT ANALYSIS
• GROUNDED ANALYSIS
• SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS (CAN ALSO BE
QUANTITATIVE)
• DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
• NARRATIVE ANALYSIS
• CONVERSATION ANALYSIS
 EXAMPLE OF QUALITATIVE DATA
RESEARCH*
• DESCRIBING AND COMPARING TWO TYPES OF
AUDIO GUIDES: PERSON-LED AND
TECHNOLOGY-LED
• GEOLOCATED AUDIO TO ENABLE PUBLIC,
INFORMAL LEARNING OF HISTORICAL EVENTS
• DATA SOURCES: QUESTIONNAIRES,
RESEARCHER OBSERVATIONS, AND SMALL
FOCUS GROUPS
* Taken from: FitzGerald, Elizabeth; Taylor, Claire and Craven, Michael (2013). To the
Castle! A comparison of two audio guides to enable public discovery of historical events.
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 17(4) pp. 749–760. http://oro.open.ac.uk/35077/
 WHAT QUALITATIVE RESEARCHERS
WORRY ABOUT?
• HAVE I CODED MY DATA CORRECTLY?
• HAVE I MANAGED TO CAPTURE THE SITUATION IN A
REALISTIC MANNER?
• HAVE I DESCRIBED THE CONTEXT IN SUFFICIENT
DETAIL?
• HAVE I MANAGED TO SEE THE WORLD THROUGH THE
EYES OF MY PARTICIPANTS?
• IS MY APPROACH FLEXIBLE AND ABLE TO CHANGE?
 WHAT’S WRONG WITH QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?

• IT CAN BE VERY SUBJECTIVE

• IT CAN’T ALWAYS BE REPEATED
• IT CAN’T ALWAYS BE GENERALIZABLE
• IT CAN’T ALWAYS GIVE YOU DEFINITE ANSWERS IN
THE WAY THAT QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH CAN
• IT CAN BE EASIER TO CARRY OUT (OR HIDE) ‘BAD’
(POOR QUALITY) QUALITATIVE RESEARCH THAN
‘BAD’ QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH